Moses hall



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MOSES HALL, JR., OF OSBORN, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND SAML. H. JUDY,OF SAME PLACE.

CATTLE-GATE FOR RAILROADS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 24,778, dated July 12, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MOSES HALL, J r., of Osborn, Greene county, Ohio,have invented a new and useful Cattle-Gate for Railroad- Crossings; andI hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of thesame, reference being had to the accompany ing drawings, making part ofthis specication, in Which- Figure l is a perspective view of the gatein a closed position, and Fig. 2 a section at an Fig. l exhibiting thegate open to permit the passage of a train.

My improvement relates to that class of railroad gates which areautomatically removed or opened by a passing train and consists of anarrangement of springs which serve to hold the gate in a verticalposition except when depressed by the wheels of the locomotive which actserves to open or fold back the gate.

A represents a railroad track.

The gate consists of a number of pickets or bars B projectingrectangularly from an axle or shaft C.

D, D, are stout metallic springs bowed slightly upward at their middleand attached to the gate a short distance above its axle. The rear endsof these springs pass through staples E7 E, attached to the track; heelsel, upon the springs preventing their escape from the staples.

Operation: On the approach of the locomotive in the direction indicatedby the arrow the flange of one of its foremost wheels strikes anddepresses the spring D and as the spring is prevented by traction, andby the direction of the pressure from running backward through itsstaple E the efect is to instantaneously fold the gate over, away fromthe approaching train, as eX- hibited in Fig. 2, While the spring Dslips freely through the staple E so as to offer no resistance to suchmotion of the gate. A train approaching from the other directionoperates the gate in a, similar manner through the agency of the springD; the gate always moving in the same direction as the train. After thepassage of the train the spring which was instrumental in folding backthe gate becomes effective for returning it to a vertical position.

In the event of the springs being broken or obstructed so as to cease tobe effective the engine and cars would of themselves bend down and passover the gate without liability to be thrown oli' the track. Thisconstitutes a marked feature of superiority distinguishing my plan fromany in which the cross bar is placed above the track.

I claim as new and of my invention herein and desire to secure byLetters Patent- Constructing or cattle guard or gate with its cross baror shaft below the rail of the railroad track and operated by springssubstantially as described.

In testimony of which invention, I hereunto set my hand.

MOSES HALL, JUNIOR. Witnesses:

GEO. H. KNIGHT, SAMUEL H. JUDY.

